The Little Senju (Little Senju Series Book One): A Naruto Fanfiction

The Little Senju Helps Out

Izumi's POV

"You're finally back!" I cheered to Naruto as both he and Sasuke appeared in Tazuna's house, "I was worried something might've happened to you Naruto! Don't make me worry so much!" I hugged the blond's arm while ignoring the onyx eyes that burned into me while doing so.

"You could act like you see me as your teammate..." Sasuke sighed under his breath, "I told you if you didn't take a break you'd wear yourself out, Idiot!" he scolded Naruto, "If you hadn't I wouldn't have to carry you."

Naruto ignored Sasuke's complaints, "We both..." he huffed leaning on the raven-haired boy, "We both made it all the way to the top...!" he grinned

"Good job you two!" Kakashi Sensei said looking up from the table, "Starting tomorrow you can join Sakura and Izumi with helping me guard the bridge builder!"

"Yes, Sir!" Naruto yelled.

"Yes, good job Naruto!" I agreed only slightly annoyed by how loud he was.

"I'm so worn out and dirty from working on the bridge all day!" Tazuna leaned on the table, "But the bridge... It's almost complete."

"You guys are two of a kind!" Tsunami yell laughed at him, "You and Naruto that is... Wearing yourselves out like that."

"Naruto likes to make me worry too!" I leaned my chin on my hand, "Staying out all night training..."

Naruto's POV

There she goes again... I thought leaning against the table, She's so weird... Why does she worry about me so much? At the very same moment as Inari stared at me and began to tear up. Opening one eye I asked him, "What's wrong?"

The young boy slammed his hands to the table yelling as he cried, "Why do you even bother?!?" No matter what you do Gato will always win! You can act cool and strong all you want, but Gato will kill all of you. Just go home already!"

"Heh, I'm not you!" I scoffed not moving an inch, "I'm not going to lose!"

This just seemed to make the boy even angrier and more upset than before, "Just watching you makes me sick!" he announced standing up, "You go running your mouth when you don't understand anything! And you don't a single thing about me! You're always goofing off. You know nothing about suffering or what it's like to be treated like dirt!"

With that something inside of me snapped, "Oh so, it's much better to whine and complain and treat everyone like the guests of your pity party?" I snapped upward glaring coldly at the little boy, "It takes a great big man to sit around and cry, brat! You're just a big baby!" the words hit him instantly as he continued sobbing. I pulled myself from the table and began to walk away.

"Naruto... Wait..." Izumi looked up nervously from her spot next to Sakura, but I ignored her and continued walking away.

"Naruto you went too far!" Sakura barked, "Now get back here!"

"Hmph!" I grunted not stopping for a moment.

Izumi's POV... The Next Morning...

"Izumi, Please watch over Naruto while we go to the bridge with Tazuna today!" my sensei told me with a smile, "He's used up too much of his chakra so I doubt that he'll be able to move at all today... See you later then!" he gave a small wave as the four of them, Kakashi, Sakura, Sasuke, and the bridge builder, headed toward their destination.

A bit later after I'd dozed off since Naruto had been fast asleep I was awakened by someone screaming, "How come no one woke me up?!?" Naruto shouted quickly changing out of his pajamas, "Hello??? Where'd everybody go?!?"

"Huh? Kakashi Sensei told me to stay here with you while you slept since you were so tired out from the training...." I explained opening one eye and stretching, "We've got the day off so you can go back to sleep. (I can also go back to sleep, right?)"

"Argh!" the blond grunted, "They ditch me the first chance they get!!!" he raced out of the house before I could even get up from the floor, "See ya!"

"At least wait for me to catch up!" I panted jumping from tree branch to tree branch trying my best to keep up with my teammate, "How do you have so much energy..."

"Jeez! Why didn't they wake me?!?" Naruto asked more to himself as I finally caught up.

"I told you already why..." I sighed gently punching his arm when I heard a slight rustling noise just below us, "Hey! Did you hear that?" both our heads turned downwards to the source of the noise

. . .

Naruto was surprisingly serious as we followed the trail of cut up trees and boar. I could hear two men's voices and a woman's too, but soon the tapping of something on wood entered my ears. Instantly worry appeared in my mind for both Inari and his mother and as we got closer I could see Inari confronting two of Gato's body guard's that wielded long swords.

"Wait!!!" Inari called to the men, "You.... Get away from my mom!!!!" sweat dripped the boy's face as he screamed out.

"Huh?" one of the men turned around, "Oh... It's just that little brat.

"Inari!!!!" his Mother cried as the men readied their swords, "Don't you dare lay a hand on my son!"

"Take a nap!" the other man ordered smacking the back of her head.

"Be careful!" I mouthed to Naruto as both of us sprang forward coming to the little boy's aid as he ran for the men who were prepared to cut him down.

He simply nodded as he headed for Inari. Poof! "A substitution?!?!?" the men gasped out in shock as a cut-up log fell to the boardwalk rather than Inari.

"The hero always shows up at the last minute ya know!" Naruto smiled as he set Tsunami down, "Sorry I'm late. Way to go Inari! You were so brave!"

"Naruto...?!?"

"Oi! Isn't that one of Tazuna's brats?" the first man asked turning to his partner.

"When you distracted them I was able to rescue your mom!" just as Naruto said this the men stopped their talking and raced toward my blond teammate, "No sweat," he said flinging two shuriken at sword wielders.

"Did you really think that'd work? Try something else!"

"I just did!" Naruto snickered.

"HHiiiyah!" I yelled as a wood clone and I kicked the men upside the head knocking them out with a single hit, "I thought you'd be tougher than that!" I scoffed knowing that the men couldn't hear me.

"Nice job!" Naruto complimented, " By the way Inari! I'm sorry...." he turned somewhat red as he looked at the boy, "I'm sorry I called you a baby because it's not true, alright?" he tapped Inari's head, "You're a big, strong, brave boy!"

As Naruto removed his hand Inari began to sob loudly, "No! No! No!" Inari mumbled to himself, "I promised myself that I wouldn't cry anymore!" he sniffled rubbing his face, "Now you're going to make fun of me again...!"

"No way!" Naruto grinned folding his hands behind his head, "There's nothing wrong with crying when you're happy!

. . .

" You think they're at the bridge too?" I asked Naruto, my partner, as we sped toward the location where our teammates and sensei had gone.

"Yeah!"

Just a bit of clarification this time around. Izumi doesn't actually have a crush on Naruto or anything like that. I know it's a bit confusing at this point, but she has limited experience with people and because of the situation that will be revealed at a later date she feels very protective of him and doesn't really know how to express that, so it comes out like she has feelings for him. In other news Izumi is bisexual (she doesn't know that yet though....), so yeah... She's bloody amazing! Until next time!

-- Amy